Hyperworm wrote:I think your translation is right but your interpretation is wrong.I think the 詰まりの原因 is politely omitted, and could be represented in a translation by "it".

"Please flush after use, because [otherwise] it causes (the toilet) to get clogged"

Perhaps, above a urinal is the wrong place for this sign...??

But as written the sign technically indicates that flushing is the cause of the pipes getting clogged up (and that such clogging is the desired outcome). Of course, no one is stupid enough to misinterpret the intended message of the sign in such a nonsensical way. I asked a couple of native speakers to verify my gaijin suspicion that I had found the construction of the sentence was odd, and got an 言われてみれば reaction.

Wow, really, that's the problem? (congrats to keatonatron)I thought the use of ので here was natural as (e.g.) an omission of the first part in

（そうしないと）詰まりの原因になりますので、使用後水を流して下さいor（水を流さないと）詰まりの原因になりますので、使用後水を流して下さいthough I can't actually remember if I've seen this usage anywhere before or not... >_>

I'm not particularly happy with the wording in either of those though... the second one is repetitive, and the first one I'm not sure the forward-referencing use of そう at the start is OK >_> So how do you say this correctly?

At first I couldn't really understand the sentence because I'm used to 詰まりmeaning "namely" or "in other words," but then I looked it up on Edict and it says it can also mean "blockage." So I tried translating the sentence again in my mind and the closest I could come up with is "Because (it) will cause blockage, please flush after use." Is this the correct meaning? I'm not entirely sure. It does seem like an odd sentence as you said, but I can't put my finger on it exactly. Does it have to do with the ambiguity of what they're referring to? I'm a bit at a loss.

Edit: Wow, I take 5 minutes to write a post and already like 10 extra people reply. Lol, oh well...